In 1959 Elly Jansen began her pioneer work  of providing Therapeutic Communities in the Community. Her aim was to provide a bridge between the Psychiatric Hospital and independent living for people recovering from mentals, and also for those vulnerable to breakdown. The organisation which she created became incorporated and registered as a Charity named The Richmond Fellowship.

Between 1959 and 1986, she endeavoured to widen the scope of her work in response to developmenal needs by means of the following:

• The Richmond Fellowship College which provided a large variety of courses in Human Relations (1967)
• Richmond  Fellowship International which raised funds and awareness of need for developing countries (1981)
• The Fellowship Charitable Foundation for longer-term care (1983) later to become Community Housing and Therapy
• The Richmond Fellowship Workshops (1986), which were successfully established in several locations.

The Richmond Fellowship International was formally established by Elly Jansen in 1981 as a charity registered in the UK, with the specific aim of developing the Fellowship’s international outreach.

The therapeutic Community concept, operated outside the hospital and in a variety of ways to meet specific needs, became internationally recognised early on as an invaluable means of rehabilitation. Already in 1969 Elly Jansen had, with the support of a number of the Chairmen of Schools of Psychiatry, established the Richmond Fellowship of America – later renamed the US Fellowship. By 1981 she had extended this movement to a number of developed countries such as Australia and new Zealand, and had begun to introduce services in developing countries. She formalised this in 1981 by creating the Richmond Fellowship International, a charity reigistered in the UK.  In order to concentrate her energies on the development of projects in the developing world, EllyJansen resigned from her position as CEO of the Richmond Fellowship in 1991 having served it for 32 years.

From 1969 to 2000, Elly Jansen established Richmond Fellowship Affiliates in 33 countries worldwide, developing an internationally acclaimed reputation for the services in the process. In 2006  the Richmond Psychosocial Foundation International was formed to take her work forward.